Euro 2016 Predictions: Who Will Win Poland vs. Portugal?

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“Who will win EUFA Euro 2016?” “Who will win Poland vs. Portugal?” These and other similar questions may have been appearing in your search suggestions if you’ve been looking into the current 2016 UEFA European Championship, perhaps better known as simply the Euro 2016 tournament. The event will begin the quarterfinals with the highly anticipated game between Poland and Portugal, and fans are already making their predictions about how this game will go. If you want to create your own Euro 2016 predictions and theories about this match’s outcome, or if you are simply interested to see what the popular opinion is, read on for our Poland vs. Portugal predictions.

Euro Predictions: About the Game

The quarterfinals of the 2016 UEFA European Championship will begin on June 30 with the match between Portugal and Poland. The game is scheduled for a 3:00 p.m. EST start time and will be played at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, France. As a result, neither team has a home-field advantage that would play into anyone’s Euro predictions. Similarly, no incarnation of either team has ever won the championship before, nor do either current iterations have any recent championships to their name. Poland has two prior appearances at the Euro tournament while Portugal has six.

Euro 2016 Standings

Poland had one of the stronger showings in the group phase of the tournament, having accumulated seven points from two wins and a draw in a group that contained Germany (who is considered by many to be the best team in the world today and an odds-on favorite to win the entire tournament). In contrast, Portugal did not look so hot in the early Euro 2016 standings as they advanced to the tournament bracket by the skin of their teeth, having gone to a draw in every single group phase game.

In the knockout phase, Poland went the distance with their “round of 16” opponent, Switzerland. The game ended in regulation time with a 1-1 draw, taking the game to a penalty shoot-out. Poland would go on to win the shoot-out 5-4 in what the Polish media has been calling a historic moment, especially since the team has never made it this far in the Euro 2016 standings before. However, given their aforementioned strong play in the group phase prior to the game with Switzerland, one has to wonder if the team making it this far should be any sort of surprise at all.

Meanwhile, in their “round of 16” match, Portugal was paired up with Croatia. Many Euro predictions had listed Portugal as the overall better team, having fared the same as Poland in their group with two wins and a draw. In spite of a predicted disadvantage, Portugal was excellent at shutting down the offense of the Coratian team, which only had 58% possession and 16 attempts at scoring. Interestingly, Portugal only had six but only two of those reached the net, one of which included Ricardo Quaresma’s game-winning goal during extra time.

Who Will Win Poland vs. Portugal?

Reading the above, it should come as no surprise that many Euro 2016 predictions from the less soccer-savvy have Poland going over Portugal, given how both teams have fared thus far. However, don’t finalize your Poland vs. Portugal predictions just yet, because Portugal is still in this tournament more than you may think. The team’s track record thus far has shown that they can produce the results they want, even if it means grinding the game out past regulation time. Cristiano Ronaldo could also be a factor, provided he finds whatever it is he’s appeared to be lacking in the tournament thus far. He has yet to impress anybody with his recent play. They are also, contrary to the tournament results, a much higher-ranked team overall, being eighth in the world to Poland’s 27th.

Poland, of course, has all the tools they need to succeed. They will likely want, if not need, to rely heavily on Robert Lewandowski for scoring, though he has underperformed so far, much like Ronaldo. If they can prevent Portugal from finding their footing and play to their strengths, a win could certainly be in their grasp.